Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters filled the streets of Hong Kong late on Tuesday, stockpiling supplies and erecting makeshift barricades ahead of what some fear may be a push by police to clear the roads before Chinese National Day.

On the eve of Wednesday’s anniversary of the Communist Party’s foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, crowds poured into central districts of the Asian financial hub, near where National Day festivities are scheduled to take place.

There was a carnival atmosphere among demonstrators, in contrast to weekend clashes when riot police fired pepper spray and tear gas to quell the unrest. - Reuters reportsMore

Apple’s stores attracted long lines of shoppers for the debut of the latest iPhones, indicating robust pent-up demand for bigger-screen smartphones. The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus became available starting in Australia, before rolling out in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, France, Germany, Puerto Rico, Canada and the United States. Consumers in New York and San Francisco had already formed queues to be first to buy the gadgets.

Today’s strange news from around the world: Fishermen found two conjoined gray whale calves in a northwestern Mexican lagoon, a discovery that a government marine biologist described as “exceptionally rare,” participants broke the Guiness World Records by creating the largest sushi mosaic using a total of 20,647 pieces during the 10th anniversary of a sushi chain store in Hong Kong, and police in China detained a former chef over the death of a rare Siberian tiger discovered in the back of an SUV.